Bradford Hill Criteria

The Bradford Hill criteria are a set of nine viewpoints scientists use to judge whether a statistical link between an exposure and a disease reflects real cause and effect, rather than coincidence. They include factors like the strength of the association, whether it holds up across many studies, whether more exposure means more disease, and whether the timing makes sense. They are guidelines for reasoning, not a checklist where every item must be met.

Origin

Introduced by the British epidemiologist Sir Austin Bradford Hill in a 1965 address to the Royal Society of Medicine, drawing on his earlier work linking smoking to lung cancer. He offered them as considerations for moving from observed association to a verdict of causation.

Significance in Asbestos Context

The link between asbestos and diseases like mesothelioma and asbestosis satisfies the Bradford Hill considerations strongly, which is why that general causation is well settled and rarely seriously disputed in court. Your case will more often turn on specific causation, meaning whether a particular product or defendant caused your disease, and experts may still invoke Hill's framework when explaining their reasoning. Understanding these criteria helps you follow why an expert concludes asbestos caused your illness. Defendants sometimes attack a single criterion, such as dose-response for their specific product, so your expert should be prepared to address the framework as a whole.

Example Sentence

The plaintiff's epidemiologist walked the jury through the Bradford Hill criteria to explain why the scientific community accepts asbestos as a cause of mesothelioma.

Related Terms

Causation, General Causation, Specific Causation, Dose-Response Relationship, Epidemiology, Biological Plausibility

Notes

• Distinguish general causation (asbestos can cause this disease) from specific causation (this exposure caused your disease); the criteria mainly support the first.
• If an expert report references these criteria, ask your attorney which points a defendant is most likely to contest.
• Keep any epidemiological literature your legal team relies on, since the same studies often support the Hill analysis across many asbestos cases.